JUSTICE HYMAN delivered the judgment of the court, with
opinion. [*]
Justices Neville and Simon concurred in the judgment and
opinion.

OPINION

HYMAN
JUSTICE

¶
1 This case arises out of an assault by three off-duty
Chicago police officers on a civilian. The incident, which
happened over 10 years ago, took place inside a fast food
restaurant and was captured on videotape. One of the officers
pointed his service weapon at the head of the victim, Obed
DeLeon, and shoved him against a wall. The two other
officers, along with a friend, then punched and kicked DeLeon
until Chicago police officers arrived and took DeLeon into
custody. Because the video has no audio, what provoked the
assault is in dispute. The officers contend DeLeon shouted
gang slogans and threatened to kill a cop; eyewitnesses
contend DeLeon made no threats.

¶
2 The superintendent of police charged the three officers
with violating multiple Chicago police department (CPD)
rules. After a hearing, the Chicago Police Board (Board)
found two of the officers guilty and discharged them. The
third was suspended for 18 months. On administrative review
of the discharged officers' cases, the circuit court held
that the Board violated the officers' due process rights
and the charges were barred by laches, as the
superintendent waited more than four years after the assault
to bring the charges. Although not citing it as a basis for
reversal, the court also stated that the Board's findings
of fact were against the manifest weight of the evidence
because the videotape supports the officers' claims that
DeLeon threatened to kill a cop and "generally ma[de]
statements designed to provoke and inflame the
officers." The court ordered the superintendent to
reinstate the officers who appealed. The superintendent filed
a motion to reconsider, which the court denied. This appeal
followed.

¶
3 We reverse. The Board correctly found the charges were not
barred by due process, laches, the Chicago Municipal
Code, or the CPD's general orders. The Board's
findings of fact should have been but were not treated as
prima facie true and correct (735 ILCS 5/3-110 (West
2014)). Its determination that the attack on DeLeon was
unprovoked was not against the manifest weight of the
evidence; its decision to discharge was not arbitrary,
unreasonable, or unrelated to the requirements of service.

¶
4 Although we review the decision of the administrative
agency and not the decision of the circuit court, we find
inexplicable the circuit court's ruling on the manifest
weight of the evidence. Not only does the circuit court
disregard the Board's determination that the testimony of
the two witnesses was particularly credible and the testimony
of the police officers was not worthy of belief, but it also
interprets what occurs on the surveillance video in ways that
twist the facts and defy reason. Our careful and close review
of the video leaves us dumbfounded by the circuit court's
rejection of the Board's prima facie true and
correct findings.

¶
5 We cannot ignore an even more troubling aspect of this
case-the inherently improbable character of the officers'
defense, which largely relied on stirring prejudices by
suggesting that DeLeon's conduct was gang-related. The
Board categorically rejected the officers' version of the
events, with its scrambled chronology, as inconsistent with
and contrary to the surveillance video and the testimony of
the two witnesses. Misconduct and manipulation of the sort
that occurred here leaves a stain on the good honor of the
vast majority of police officers in the department who
comport themselves with integrity, dignity, decency, and
discipline.

¶
6 BACKGROUND

¶
7 In the early morning hours of March 24, 2006, off-duty
Chicago police officers assaulted a patron, Obed DeLeon, at a
Taco and Burrito King (TBK) restaurant on the northwest side
of Chicago. The restaurant's surveillance video shows
plaintiff Officer Brian Murphy pointing his gun at DeLeon and
pushing him against a wall. Fellow officers Jason Orsa and
Daniel McNamara, and Murphy's friend, Mathew Walsh,
pushed, punched, and kicked DeLeon until uniformed, on-duty
police officers arrived. Murphy, Orsa, and McNamara then left
the restaurant through the back door and did not file a
tactical response report (TRR), as required by the CPD's
General Order No. 02-08-05 or report the incident to a
supervisor.

¶
8 A few days later, DeLeon filed a complaint with the Office
of Professional Standards (OPS), which began an
investigation. The Independent Police Review Authority
(IPRA), which replaced OPS in 2007, completed the
investigation in October 2009, and, on July 2, 2010, the
superintendent filed charges with the Board recommending
discharge of Murphy and Orsa.

¶
9 The superintendent charged Murphy and Orsa with violating
Rules 2, 6, 8, 10, 14, and 22 of the CPD by bringing
discredit on the department, disobeying an order or
directive, disrespecting or maltreating a person while off
duty, inattention to duty, making a false report, and failing
to report improper conduct to the department. Murphy was
additionally charged with violating Rules 9 and 38 for
unjustified verbal or physical altercation with a person
while on or off duty and unlawful or unnecessary use or
display of a weapon. (The superintendent also charged
McNamara and Sergeant Louis Danielson, one of the responding
police officers, with rules violations. Neither is a party to
this case and only those facts necessary for a complete
understanding of plaintiffs' appeal are addressed.)

¶
10 Before the Board hearing, Murphy and Orsa filed a motion
to strike and dismiss, arguing the charges were not timely
and were barred by due process, laches, the Chicago
Municipal Code, and the CPD's general orders because they
were not filed until four years and three months after the
incident. The Board took the motion with the case. At the
Board hearing, the superintendent called Shawn Nelson and
Joseph Mularczyk as witnesses, and they testified to
substantially the same events. On March 24, 2006, Nelson and
Mularczyk were driving home from Nelson's
girlfriend's house. At about 3:30 a.m., they stopped to
eat at TBK and Nelson parked on the street because the
entrance to TBK's lot was blocked by a late nineties
Camaro parked perpendicular to the driveway so that no one
could get in or out. They entered TBK through the back door;
Mularczyk went into the bathroom, and Nelson got in line to
order. As Mularczyk left the bathroom, DeLeon, whom neither
man knew, walked into the restaurant through the back door.
Nelson and Mularczyk heard DeLeon make a general announcement
asking TBK customers if anyone knew whose car had blocked the
driveway. Nelson said that DeLeon appeared relaxed; his voice
was loud, but he was not being obnoxious. Nelson and
Mularczyk testified that DeLeon's finger was pointing
forward and his thumb was pointing backward toward the back
entrance. The video shows DeLeon motioning with his hand
toward the back entrance.

¶
11 No one responded to DeLeon's question. DeLeon then
approached Nelson and Mularczyk, who were in line, and asked
if they knew to whom the car belonged. Nelson testified he
said no but told DeLeon that he was "kind of thinking
the same thing [DeLeon] was." DeLeon then responded,
"Yeah, that guy's an asshole for parking like
that." Nelson said a man, later identified as Orsa, who
was sitting with Murphy and McNamara, at a table closest to
the counter said, " 'What if I'm that
asshole?' " DeLeon responded, " 'Is that
your car?' " and Orsa said, " 'What if it
is my car?' "

¶
12 As shown on the video, DeLeon then leaned toward the table
and according to Nelson said, " 'You need to quit
acting like an asshole and go move your car.' "
Next, Murphy stood up, turned around, swept his gun in front
of Nelson and Mularczyk, and pointed it at DeLeon's head.
Nelson said he was close enough to see down the barrel of the
gun. The other three men at the table, Orsa, McNamara, and
Walsh, got up and surrounded DeLeon.

¶
13 Nelson said he couldn't believe what was happening and
thought "I could die here." He grabbed Mularczyk
and pushed him into the kitchen, a few feet away. The
kitchen's entrance was an open archway without a door.
Nelson said he leaned out to see the four men, including
Murphy and Orsa, throw DeLeon to the ground and kick and hit
him. Nelson acknowledged his view was partially blocked by
people standing in front of him. Nelson testified that DeLeon
tried to defend himself by covering up and tried to get up a
couple of times but that the men held him down and continued
to kick, hit, and knee him. Mularczyk testified that from the
kitchen, he saw Orsa kick DeLeon twice in the torso.

¶
14 When the men had DeLeon under control, Nelson and
Mularczyk left the kitchen and walked out of the front door
of the restaurant. They said they went one at a time to avoid
looking as if they were involved in the fight. Nelson said
that just before he and Mularczyk left the kitchen, he heard
someone say that the men were police officers, although he
did not know who said that. Nelson and Mularczyk never heard
DeLeon say "cop killer, " "Cobra love, "
or "Spanish Cobra, " or anything to the effect of
"I just ran into your car." Nor did they feel
threatened by DeLeon.

¶
15 Nelson and Mularczyk met outside in front of the
restaurant and decided to stay to talk to the police. Nelson
and Mularczyk tried to tell a responding female police
officer and a male sergeant what happened, but the officers
told them to wait and went into the restaurant. The officers
then left the restaurant with DeLeon in handcuffs. Nelson
said he tried to explain that DeLeon was "not the guy
that did it. It was the four white guys." Nelson said
"one of the sergeants asked us what our story was and we
re-explained everything from the point where we walked
in." The sergeant asked Nelson, " 'That's
the story you're sticking to?' " Nelson said it
was, and he and Mularczyk were placed under arrest. Nelson
said he heard Lieutenant Danielson say, " 'Put this
gangbanger in the paddy wagon, ' " referring to
DeLeon, and " 'arrest these two for being in the
wrong place at the wrong time.' " Nelson, Mularczyk,
and DeLeon were put in the back of a paddy wagon. Nelson said
he noticed DeLeon had a bruise above his left eye and that
his shirt and hat were missing. Nelson and Mularczyk were
taken to jail and charged with assaulting Matthew Walsh. They
appeared in court but the case was dismissed because Walsh,
the complaining witness, did not appear.

¶
16 DeLeon testified that he went to TBK at about 4 a.m. on
March 24, 2006, to get food for his pregnant fiancée.
He wore a blue shirt, jeans, and a white hat. He had to park
on a side street because two cars were blocking TBK's
parking lot. DeLeon entered through the back door and asked
in a loud voice, "Who's the asshole blocking the
entrance to the parking lot?" He said he then got in
line to order food and asked two men in front of him, Nelson
and Mularczyk, if they knew "Who's the asshole
blocking the entrance." A man sitting at a table to
DeLeon's right said, " 'What if I'm the
asshole blocking the entrance?' " DeLeon replied
"Move your car then, asshole." DeLeon said Murphy,
who was at the table with his back to him, jumped up, pulled
out a gun from his waistband, put the gun to his face, and
pushed him into the wall. DeLeon tried to smack the gun away
and started to fight back. DeLeon saw Murphy reholster his
gun. Three men who were sitting with Murphy also jumped up,
grabbed DeLeon, and pinned him against the wall. DeLeon
testified none of the men identified themselves as Chicago
police officers or showed him a badge. DeLeon was swinging
and trying to get away so he could get out of the restaurant,
but the men pinned him with their knees and punched and
kicked him.

¶
17 DeLeon said the men held him down for a minute or so and
allowed him to get up when uniformed police officers arrived.
During the scuffle, DeLeon's shirt was ripped off and his
tattoos became visible. DeLeon had two tattoos: a cobra on
his left chest and "SC, " which stands for Spanish
Cobra, a street gang, on his back. DeLeon said that at the
time of the incident, he was no longer affiliated with the
Spanish Cobras, that he had "SC" removed when he
was 23 or 24 years old, and that he was planning to remove
the other tattoo. DeLeon said he did not own a gun or have
one on him when he went into TBK. He denied saying
"cobra love, " "cop killer, " "f***
the police, " or "Spanish Cobra" or making any
gang signals with his hands. He also denied saying he was
going to "cap" someone or anything like that.

¶
18 DeLeon said that when he got up from the floor, he did not
see any of the men involved in the fight. He was arrested,
placed in handcuffs, and escorted out of the restaurant. The
police officers did not ask him any questions or allow him to
explain what happened, but placed him in a paddy wagon with
Nelson ...

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